Restaurant Adds Fee for Healthcare for Employees, Everyone Freaks Out

“We all have to share a burden. If you’re at a restaurant where you’re spending $5 on a cup of coffee, you can spare 3 percent.”

That’s just one of the reactions to Los Angeles restaurant La Republique’s move to add a 3 percent fee to every bill to help cover health care costs for its 80-plus employees. Of course, that’s of the more pleasant reactions to the initiative, of which angry Yelpers have already deemed it as Obamacare.

As described to the Los Angeles Times, the owners of La Republique have avoided that sticky situation of part-time employees and health care under the the Affordable Care Act, and said they hoped that all employees would work full-time. But another motivation to include the “Surcharge Healthy LA” fee is to let every employee, including those who don’t get tips, get their fair share to balance out everyone in the pool. Owner Bill Chait said he would “absolutely” pay for health care for his employees.

And yet the people who can afford up to $75 for a steak want to keep that three percent, dammit! Time will tell if such an idea will catch on in a scandal-plagued area of the restaurant industry.